


when the morning comes

by BlueMoonHound, Capitola



Series: hide and seek [9]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Cooking, Dating, F/M, First Time, Friends With Benefits, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Lovers to Friends, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Episode: e041-049 The Eleventh Hour Parts 1-9, Taakitz is endgame i promise you, but also sweet moments, but shit's complicated, lots of general angst and brooding, the divergence has happened and now we just live in it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-04-08 03:29:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14096229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueMoonHound/pseuds/BlueMoonHound, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Capitola/pseuds/Capitola
Summary: It's one thing to fall in love with someone like you, someone else tired of the living and content in the dark. It's another thing to fall in love with someone who brings light into your world.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> _Runs in your blood, it’s on your mind_   
>  _Tucked in your skin, is where you’ll find_   
>  _That little light, that mends your bones_   
>  _You’ll feel it when the morning comes_

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kravitz keeps a busy schedule, Taako experiments, and Lucretia gives some advice.

It’s always in moments like these, lying together in the afterglow, that Kravitz feels like he could get used to this, this living with mortals thing. A second chance at life. He runs his hand absently over Lucretia's hair. Her head rests in the dip of his neck. It's good. It's much better than the life he had before - a life he now recognizes as lonely. She turns her face to look up at him.  
“You’re thinking of something,” she says.

“I’m thinking that I need to stop getting involved with people I meet through my work,” he replies, with some humor. It’s not a lie, though it might count for a lie of omission with anyone else. He’s had a lot of thoughts about Lucretia over the past few days. Technically, he knows more than he did before he talked to Taako about Refuge, and about the Bureau, and about, well, everything that’s been going on. In reality, it feels like he knows less than ever. He’s consciously aware of how Lucretia keeps him at arm’s length, dropping little hints here and there but never giving him a chance to ask her a real question. But he knows that she is connected now to these other people with these other ridiculous tallies, and it unsettles him a bit.

Just a bit. Not enough to skip meeting with Lucretia entirely, obviously.

“You mean just me? Or has this - ” she moves her hand in a gesture to indicate to the two of them entwined in her bed “ - become a habit with you?”

“Not like _this_ , no.” He sputters a little, before elaborating. “I think I might have gone on a date the other day.” He doesn’t feel at all uncomfortable telling her this, on the contrary he feels like she’s someone he can rely on to be in his court.

“You _think_ you _might_ have gone on a date? How does that work, exactly?” She’s grinning broadly, almost laughing now.

“I - well, I thought it was going to be business, but then he, and then I, and I wasn't sure at all about where things left off. I think I might have agreed to see him again?”

“So not only was it possibly a date, but it was a _good_ possible date?”

“Quit laughing at me, it’s been a long time. It’s not like I was good at this sort of thing when I was alive, either.”

“Always a groomsman, never a groom?”

“Not even that, I’ve always been more inclined to let my work life be my social life because it meant I didn’t have to worry about spending time and effort on a social life.”

“And look at us, two debauched, lazy introverts who still manage to have some good fun here at the end.” She sits up, stretching. He follows, and she kisses his forehead. She climbs over him and gets up, putting on a robe.

“Sorry.” It stings a little when she brings up how close they are to the end of the year she had asked for. Only four more months now, and - he’s enjoyed his time with her. He wouldn’t qualify what they have beyond that, but they’ve certainly become friends.  
She only laughs again. Her mood always improves the longer he stays. “Why? You shouldn’t be. You’ve shown me a good time, too, these past few months. I can count the days as well as you can, I know we’re closer to the end of the year I bargained for. I’m not interested in fighting the time, I’ve got plenty of other battles to fight.”

“You’re not - I mean, this isn’t some weird...I don’t know. Suicide thing.”  

“It’s not suicide, it’s acceptance of the end. I’ve spent over a hundred years running, and even when we stopped here I left my friends behind, left my son...no. I don’t welcome the end, but I’m tired of running away from it.”

“That’s...that’s good. It’s a healthy perspective on things.”

“Mmm. You hear that, Junior? I’m doing at least one thing healthily.” This last she addresses to the little jellyfish which is, as always, bobbing in its tank in one corner of the room. She told him that Junior was short for Fischer Junior, when he asked, and he is still not sure if she was kidding. Fischer, Senior or Junior, does not seem wordy enough to be a name for something that Lucretia came up with. Then again, he’s learned that the line between things Lucretia kids about and the things she straight-up lies about is thin.

She turns back to Kravitz. “I’ll tell you what else is a healthy perspective on things: making the most of the opportunities we have. Do you know how you find out if this friend of yours wanted to see you again?”

He shakes his head.

“You _ask_ him, dead guy. And the worst he can do is say no. Come on, I want you to shower with me.”   
And the latter, he happily does.

 

 

The former takes some time for him to come around to. He spends several days burying himself in work and telling himself that he’s not avoiding anything. Nothing, no siree. It’s one thing to have a conversation when work is involved, but right now, he thinks he could wait an eternity to speak to Taako again if it meant not having to deal with the inevitable awkwardness. Of it being not business. Of it being something else.

He can tell you how the years have gone by in terms of shrouds and caskets and pyres, in different fads of necromancy and horrorterror worship. He’s even kept up here and there with style (though black cloaks never stay out of fashion for long). But he feels woefully behind in how people date.

He’s spent good time with Lucretia, but their affair is, always has been, illicit and secret. She’s never taken him out anywhere or shown him off. She hardly gives him a chance to ask her questions.

He psyches himself up to call Taako on three separate occasions before he actually does it. When he does, Taako doesn’t sound surprised to hear him.

“I was wondering when you were gonna ring me up. You’re an old-fashioned kinda guy, so I figured you’d give it some time, but I think we’ve waited long enough for a second date, right?”

“So it _was_ a date.” He feels a rush of relief that it wasn’t something he’d constructed in his head over the past week.

“No, I take all the guys who try to kill me and my amigos out for hooch and ceramics. Hell yeah it was a date, numbnuts. When are you and me gonna paint the town red next?”

“Oh. I hadn’t - um.”

Taako laughs. “Hadn’t thought that far. Why don’t you swing over right now? You can hang out with me while I’m experimenting.”

“I don’t want to bother you if you’re working -

“Not working. Experimenting. On my own damn time. Get your bony self over here.”

Kravitz conjures a mirror to look at himself, suddenly conscious of his appearance. He doesn’t remember how old he was when he died, beyond less than a century but old enough for a few preliminary streaks of grey in his hair. For a half-elf, that doesn’t narrow down the window much. The Raven Queen probably could tell him if he asked, but it doesn’t really matter; he looks mature, distinguished. Handsome, perhaps. Good enough.

He opens a rift to where Taako is, and he’s greeted by the smell of something cooking. Onions. And a spice or two.

“Glad you could make it.”

“I mean, it’s no trouble - should I grab an apron or something?”

“Nope, you missed all the fussy prep work, and I think this is gonna be a one-pan show. Grab a seat and watch a master at work.”

“What is it?”

“Beef stew.” It looks like the start to no other beef stew Kravitz has ever seen, but he’s not about to walk into somebody’s kitchen and start criticizing their technique or ingredients. He can’t remember the last time he cooked.

“It’s good you’re here, actually, because I’ll be wanting a taste-tester. It’s been a while.”

“How come?”

And while he cooks, Taako tells him about Glamour Springs, and about what the Chalice showed him. How what he’d sworn off for the protection of others had never really harmed anyone at all.

“So I thought it might be time to dig out a wooden spoon and a frying pan and some ingredients and do what I do best again.”

“I thought what you did best was magic?”

“Hush. Once you’ve tasted this, you’ll know _this_ is real magic.”

“Be a dear and fetch us some bowls, will you? That one up there,” He says, pointing to a cabinet that Kravitz opens.

There’s no rhyme or reason to the dishes available, just several motley stacks of plates and bowls. They’re all either of unique make or leftovers of sets lost to time.

“Communal kitchen, what can ya do? Nature abhors order.”

“I thought it was a vacuum?” He chooses one lumpy homemade bowl and one normal one.  
“Those too,” Taako dishes up for both of them, and Kravitz takes a careful bite.

“Wow,” It’s good, really good, and not just because it’s been a while since he ate anything. The spices balance with the flavor of the meat, and everything is well-cooked, but not burned or overly limp. There’s a little something missing, he can’t quit think what the flavor would be, and he’s about to say something about it when he realizes what it is. Garlic.

Well, he’d have a reason to still leave that one out, wouldn’t he? Kravitz doesn’t say anything. Besides, if he’d gotten this anywhere else, he would have said it was perfect.

It’s sooner than he would like that he’s called away on yet another job. As he stands up to leave, Taako grabs his shoulder, a gleam in his eye.

“Hey. Got a kiss for the cook?”

Taako’s face is warm and smooth, and though Kravitz thinks that he shouldn’t linger, he lets the kiss linger. He pulls back and smiles at Taako.

“We’ll have to do some more of that next time.”

If Kravitz had looked behind him as he stepped out through his usual rift, he would have seen Taako silently pump his fist in the air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Told ya I'd have this up for Taakitz week, and even on the proper day (canon divergence)! Smaller Author and I have both been very bogged down with school and other fics and just being people, but I'm gonna try to update this at least biweekly.


	2. feel it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a date, y'all

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahahaha and I thought this would have regular updates. It’s been a heck of a year, but I’ve never stopped working at this. No promises for how often this’ll update, but I will finish it, goddamnit.

The feeling of warmth and euphoria from that short hour in the kitchen follows Kravitz through the next week. He can’t find himself in a bad mood. He returns the souls powering a zombie army to the sea of souls and realizes he’s  _ whistling _ as he does so. He doodles hats and umbrellas in the margins of paperwork. By the time Taako calls him again and does not  _ request _ so much as  _ demand _ Kravitz meet him for coffee the next day, Kravitz is beginning to think he should have pledged himself to a love goddess or something.

He’s been in love before. He must have been in love before. There were the farm boys he let woo him when he was still running around in skirts, and that beautiful elf maiden who played the pipes so sweetly. There’s Lucretia - but he stops himself there. That’s not what that is, not what that ever was. This is something else entirely. 

Their encounters in the lab, the chaotic apartment, and the Chug n’ Squeeze have left Kravitz with no expectations for a classy date, so he’s surprised to find that the place Taako has suggested is a quaint little cake shop in Neverwinter. 

Nobody passing by seems to give a second glance to a man stepping through a rip in reality right next to a bakery. He stands, perhaps a little too stiffly, pulling absentmindedly at the cuffs on his sleeves. 

He considers leaving. He considers deleting Taako’s frequency from his stone of farspeech - better yet, dissolving his stone of farspeech back into the ether and conjuring a new one - going, goodbye, none of this, ever again. Lucretia was one mistake, one case of letting someone talk him down and get an extension. This is more than one mistake, even if they did save his life and beat him in a game and even if the time loop thing wasn’t exactly anyone’s fault - he can’t just go around handing out pardons and extensions willy-nilly! He has a job to do!

And as soon as he sees Taako strutting up to him, that whole raincloud of thoughts evaporates into a single puff of steam, and it’s all Kravitz can do to stammer out a hello. 

“Hey,” Kravitz says, with a bigger exhale than is probably normal. 

“Hey yourself,” Taako winks, with a genteel buck-toothed smile, holding out a gloved hand. To his credit, Kravitz does not hesitate before taking it. 

“You look good,” he says, and it’s not just idle chat. Taako looks stunning, with a silk shirt over some extremely well-fitted trousers with feathers embroidered along the sides. He wonders if he did it on purpose - but surely he wouldn’t go to such lengths just to match Kravitz’s own aesthetic?

“So do you - as always. Tell me, do you come out of those clothes or are they sewn on?”

If not for the fact that his blood hasn’t flowed normally in over eight centuries, Kravitz is certain he would be blushing at that. He manages to blurt out something bordering on witty. 

“Maybe you’ll find out later.”

“But only  _ later _ ?” 

“Weren’t - I thought you were the one who wanted to come here?”

“I do, hon, I do.” He reaches toward Kravitz’s hand, but pulls away suddenly, making a “come on” gesture. “Let’s go see just how overpriced the cake here is.”

The cafe is much quieter inside than the outside street. They sit down at a wobbly-legged table and are brusquely handed menus by a no-nonsense halfling waiter. Taako’s eyes dart hungrily across the menu, and after a few seconds he says “Tell me, what looks good to you?”

Kravitz is finding it all a bit much for his tastes, and admits as much to Taako. “I didn’t grow up with all this sugar and cream so readily available, I don’t know where to start.” 

“Mmm.” Taako returns his gaze to his own menu. His hand is placed exactly at the middle of the table and he drums his fingers. Kravitz wonders if it’s an invitation to hold it again. “What do you like? Chocolate? Cinnamon? Fruit?”

“Cinnamon sounds nice.” Kravitz places his hand in the middle of the table, a few inches off from Taako’s. 

Taako nods. “Try the coffeecake, it’ll be less frou-frou.” 

The waiter comes by and takes their orders, and they’re left with just each other, bathed in the light of the midday sun coming through the window. 

Slowly, Taako inches his hand towards Kravitz’s, resting it so the two of them are touching. Kravitz experimentally strokes Taako’s hand, bringing their fingers together so that they might be said to be holding hands. Taako does not move away.

“So, uh, how’s work?”

Taako looks at him a moment and laughs. 

“Come on, my dude, really? On a  _ date _ ? We can talk about stuff besides work.”

Kravitz tries to match Taako’s laughter, but it comes out nervous. “I guess I’m not quite sure what else to bring up.”

“How about the fact that you run  _ cold _ , m’dude? I thought your face the other day might’ve been a fluke, but your hand’s like ice.”

“Oh,” Kravitz pulls his hand back, and starts rubbing his hands together. “It’s sort of a side effect of the ‘being dead’ thing. I guess I didn’t - ”  _ Why hasn’t Lucretia ever brought that up? _ He wonders.

“No, it’s fine.” And Taako reaches for his hand and pulls it back to the center of the table, continuing to hold it. “I can get used to this.”

“I should get them to bring me some tea or something,” Kravitz mumbles, trying to ignore the sparkling span of time that “get used to this” implies. 

When their orders arrive, it seems Taako seems has no such concerns for himself about frou-frou. His cake is covered in frosting and gumpaste roses, and a bite is enough for Kravitz. The one Taako recommended for him is cake is good, though. It’s light, and flavorful beyond just being sweet, though Taako takes one bite and pronounces that he could do it better. 

“Is that a promise?”

“Could be. Do you  _ really _ really like it?”

Kravitz smiles. “You know, I think I really do.”

They eat in silence, broken only by the sounds of forks scraping on plates. The same waiter comes by and exchanges their plates for a bill. 

“I guess I’ll get this,” Taako says, very slowly pulling out a coin purse. Kravitz takes the hint. 

“Here, I can - ” Kravitz reaches into his cloak for the pouch of coins he keeps stored in it. At the jingle of it, Taako’s eyes widen.

“Do you get a  _ salary _ ?”

“No, I, well.” He hadn’t thought about explaining this one. “Sometimes bounties have stuff, well, lying around, and sometimes I want little things to bet on games, or spend on cute guys.” 

“Holy  _ shit _ .” Taako leans forward with his face propped on his hands. “That’s even better. I’m never gonna let Maggie guilt me for looting a dead guy again if the death police do the same thing.”

“Well, strictly speaking there’s not really a ‘death police.’ There’s just me, at present.”

“‘At present.’”

“There’ve been others, but it’s not a forever thing, you know? And not everyone’s cut out for it.” Taako nods like he’s listening, and Kravitz continues. “When souls are dead, there’s a pull towards going...on. Into the next life. And reapers are a semblance of life, but in the end we’re still dead. Eventually you get tired of it.” 

“Boy, you sure know how to liven up a conversation.” Kravitz’s face falls a moment, until he sees Taako’s grin, begging for a laugh at the pun he just made.

They walk hand in hand out of the restaurant, and on the street Taako takes Kravitz’s other hand. “The way I see it, there’s two ways to what happens next. Either we take a very pleasant, leisurely walk around the city, or you use that sweet portal magic of yours to get us back to my room. Now, my heart is telling me we only get one fourth date, but my junk is telling me that one too. Tell me what  _ you _ think.”

And Kravitz does.

They’re kissing as soon as they step through the rift into Taako’s room, after a quick glance around to make sure that it is indeed Taako’s room and that the door is shut. Kravitz’s lips may be cold but they are so damn soft. Taako has been playing coy as long as they were out and about, wanting to draw this out and keep him guessing, but the gloves are off now. Time to show him a good time. He pushes Kravitz against the wall, and they keep kissing as Taako runs his hands over Kravitz’s arms, pulling his jacket off. There’s something really damn fine about a man in a waistcoat. Taako kisses him again, but pulls away after a moment.

“Hey, you want me to suck your dick?”

“Oh, um -” Kravitz is still flustered, normal flustered, but there almost looks like a note of genuine panic in his face, so Taako takes it back a few paces.

“I mean, I assume that’s what you’re packing, based on the fact that something’s poking me in the thigh, but I’d also be chill if that’s just a knife and you’ve got a pussy or a cloaca or a pants octopus you want me to chow down on, but like, y’know. Oral sex is the offer on the table here.”

Kravitz, his expression settled back into amusement, blinks at him. “I have a dick. Are those - have you done all of those?”

“Maybe. Who’s to say? I don’t kiss and tell. Blowjob or no job, Bone Boy?”

“Blowjob. Please, that sounds - that would be great. Can I sit on your bed?”

“Sure, it’s what it’s there for.” They move together over towards the bed, Taako bending over Kravitz to keep kissing him as he settling himself down to sit on the edge. Taako undoes Kravitz’s belt and trousers as they kiss, reaching down to grab the other man’s cock through the fabric. 

“Somebody’s eager, huh?” He begins working Kravitz’s pants further down.

“You know, I could just - ” Kravitz makes the clothes on the lower half of his body disappear. Taako jumps in surprise, then claps and laughs.

“Give a guy a warning next time!”

“I can put them back, if you want.”

“Nah, it makes this next bit much easier.”

Taako runs his hand up and down the length of his shaft, feeling it stiffen a bit more under his grasp. They must be about the same size hard, though there will be plenty of time for comparisons later. 

He kisses the head of Kravitz’s dick and he can feel the other man shiver. He’d thought Kravitz might be more sensitive, given how little he seemed to get out, but maybe he’s just bad at hiding it. Then again, not dating for a while doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting none. He licks around the base of the head before taking the whole of Kravitz’s cock in his mouth.

He’s put his mouth around bigger and stranger members, but he’s not going to complain about the chance to suck a more average cock. He likes (though he would never admit as much) that giving oral means the pressure to talk is off, and he can just focus on the task at hand - or in mouth. He runs his tongue up the length of the shaft, eliciting a groan from Kravitz which is probably the sexiest noise he’s ever heard. He continues to work his lips around the other man’s member as he reaches a hand for his own cock, which has been making a slight but definite tent in his pants for a while now. He rubs his fingers over it through the fabric, because he doesn’t feel like taking them off yet.

Kravitz moans as Taako bobs along his length. He leans back, twisting fistfuls of bedsheets in each hand.  _ Gods that’s so hot. How does anyone have the right to be so hot.  _ Taako brings a hand up to the base of Kravitz’s cock, first curling around it and then stroking lightly at his balls. He pulls off for a moment when his jaw begins to ache, stretching his face a bit as he looks up at Kravitz.

“How’m I doin’, babe?”

“Good. Really good. Please don’t stop.” 

He tongues the head of Kravitz’s cock, tasting pre, before sliding his mouth over him again. How did he get here, honestly?  _ The Grim Reaper is real and I showed him my room and I’m sucking his dick.  _ Though not for much longer, probably, as Kravitz’s breathing gets shorter and he begins to seize up against him. 

“Fuck, I’m so close. Fuck, Taako, please -” Kravitz throws his head back as he comes, and Taako swallows as he does. When he’s finished, Taako slides his mouth off the spent member and pulls himself up onto the bed, lying level with Kravitz. He pulls his face towards him and kisses him. Kravitz laughs.

“You taste like my dick.”

“Spitters are quitters, m’dude.”

“Goddess, you’re worse than -” Kravitz cuts himself off, and Taako can’t help but rise to the bait.

“Worse than whoooo?” He says, sing-songing the last syllable.

Kravitz very noticeably tries to laugh it off. “Nobody you’d know.”

“That just sounds even more suspicious! What, did you let Merle take you bowling?”

“Please don’t spoil my afterglow with your friends.” Despite his words, Kravitz is laughing.

“Yeah, about that…” Taako says thoughtfully. “Hope nobody else’s home, they might’ve gotten an earful.” 

“You’re joking. I know that look now. You’re trying to put one over on me.”

“I could be really bad at silencing spells.”

“I don’t think you are,” Kravitz says, grinning widely. “I think you just like winding me up. Come on, what do you want me to do for you?”

“Hmm.” Taako drums his fingers against his chin. “How long does it take you to go again?”

“Sometimes no time at all, but usually a little while. At least a quarter of an hour.” Kravitz brushes a loc behind his ear.  “I  _ did _ have kind of a demanding to-do list this afternoon, though…”

Taako tries to not let his face fall. “Well, I can’t stop you from your big important reaper business - ”

“Well, fortunately, said list is an elf making sad puppy eyes at me.”

Taako scoffs, not bothering to hide the glee underneath the mock scorn. “A couple more hours and you’ll see just how demanding I can get...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please feel free to comment!


End file.
